Philomena Johnson

May 2, 2018Louise Waghorn

Philomena Johnson graduated from The Hagley Writers’ Institute in 2017. Her poems have appeared in The Quick Brown Dog and London Grip and she exhibited in On Islands Eramboo in Sydney, Australia. She lives in Christchurch.

Philomena Johnson

The Island Hunkers Down

Look how everything shape-shifts
when the moon is full,
the tide king, the wind wild;
the blue row boat, low in the water,
tight on its rope, thuds against another;
the clack-clack-clack of the flagpole rope
rings through the sticky air;
the wharf rides high––the walkway,
not high enough––nothing at all dull or dry
or still––the darting eyes
of the homeward bound champion the wash of water,
the punch of wind, the taste of salt;
out beyond the blue paint, past the flagless pole,
on the far side of wet boots––
a hatch cracks open to meet the storm.